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The annual Chelsea Flower Show is one of the tourist highlights of London. But this year, the event is tainted by the murder of an American tourist in a random act of violence. But when DCI David Brock's Serious Crime division of Scotland Yard investigates, they quickly discover that the killer somehow avoided having both his face and his escape captured on any of the many closed circuit cameras in the area. The conclusion is inescapable - what seemed a senseless, but random, event was in fact a carefully planned murder.

But how could the victim- a retired widow traveling with a long time family friend - be worth the trouble and expense of such an elaborate killing? When a very wealthy Russian oligarch is killed in the garden of his palatial estate not far from the hotel where the murdered tourist was staying, Brock and Kolla suspect that something more complicated is going on and that the two killings are somehow related. In a case that takes Brock and his team all the way to the States and back, secrets from a long forgotten past are the key to a string of bloody murders that are just beginning...

Review

About the Author

BARRY MAITLAND is the author of several novels featuring Brock and Kolla. His work has been a finalist for the Barry Award, the John Creasey Award, and the winner of the Ned Kelley Award. Born in Scotland and raised in London, Maitland lives in Australia.

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Nancy Haynes and her long-time friend Emerson had arrived from the US and were spending the day at the Chelsea Flower Show. Giving in to tiredness, and unable to find a cab they strolled the short distance back to the B&B they’d booked into. But tragedy struck before they reached their destination and while Emerson was injured, his dear friend Nancy was killed. And it seemed that it was murder…

DCI Brock and DI Kathy Kolla were shocked by the brutality of the murder and vowed to Emerson and Nancy’s family back in the US that they would find her killer. But within a matter of days another murder occurred in the same vicinity – this one an important Russian official. Brock and Kathy wondered if the two were connected – but the difference in the two people was vast. Nancy was an elderly tourist with little money; the Russian extremely wealthy and well-known.

The investigation was deeply complex with many avenues to pursue. It also seemed to Kathy that there could be corruption within the higher ranks – but should she continue with her line of investigation? And what was happening with Brock? There was danger from all angles; and not just from the criminals who had no intention of being caught. They would stop at nothing…

Chelsea Mansions is the 11th in the Brock & Kolla series by Aussie author Barry Maitland and I haven’t read any of the others in the series. I hoped it wouldn’t matter; it didn’t! It is a gripping mystery with angles in every direction, which all came together nicely in the end. I’ll definitely be reading more in this series. Highly recommended.

Barry Maitland writes terrific police procedurals. In his latest book in the Brock and Kolla series, "Chelsea Mansions", Maitland gives the reader both an interesting plot and nuanced characters. Longtime fans of the series will not be disappointed at all in "Chelsea Mansions".

Cunningham Place is a block of town houses that have been turned into a single house, owned by a Russian oligarch as his London base, as well as a hotel, the Chelsea Mansions. The hotel - small with only 7 rooms - is sort of an appealing dump manned by a dedicated, if somewhat quirky, staff. It gets by on its charm - both real and imagined - and its location, in Chelsea. Brock and Kolla - both with Scotland Yard's Serious Crime Unit - are called to the hotel to investigate the death of one of the guests, an American tourist, murdered in rather grisly fashion. From that murder crops another, that of the Russian oligarch living next door. To even attempt to explain the plot would be difficult; just know it involves spies, MI5 AND MI6, the concept of Occam's Razor, American and Canadian tourists, the Chelsea Flower Show, as well as soldiers in many of the military conflicts the UK has been involved in since WW2. Oh, and a deadly flu-like disease. And that's looking at the story in a fairly simple manner. But, Barry Maitland, having introduced these plot points and characters, does a superb job of tying everything together to make a great tale.

I've always figured Maitland as a writer's writer. He's rarely guilty of an unresolved plot line or an unexplained character. Everything flows together in a complicated, yet readable way. And "Chelsea Mansions" is another success.

Unable to find a cab amid the crowds, a pair of Bostonians---the widow Nancy Haynes and her widower companion Emerson--are walking back to their hotel from a day at London's famous Chelsea Flower Show when, from out of nowhere, comes a man who sweeps her off her feet, throws her under an oncoming bus and disappears into a stunned crowd. What just went on here??? Could this this seemingly ordinary everyday visiting American woman of 70 have been mistaken for someone else? The only thing at all a bit off-key about her, according to her companion, had been her insistence, without explanation, on staying at Chelsea Mansions, a rundown hotel beneath her usual standards. The investigation has barely begun when the wealthy Russian oligarch who lives in the mansion next door is done in while sitting in the adjacent park enjoying an after-dinner cigar. This is not the kind of neighborhood where these kinds of things happen. Curiouser and curiouser. What a puzzlement. But before Brock and Kathy can even begin to get a bead on any of it, Brock will have contracted a highly contagious killer disease called Marburg fever, as will two others involved in the case; Kathy and the rest of Brock's team will take over, an attractive but unusually curious young Canadian will move into Chelsea Mansions, MI5 and MI6 will get involved and a Member of Parliament will pull some strings to get Kathy and her team booted off the case.

And so begins this most interesting double-murder mystery. Be prepared for lots and lots of twists and turns along the way and one huge whopper of an ending. Highly recommended.

I love this series. Barry Maitland is a wonderful writer that keeps a person's interest until the end. you might think you know who the murderer is, but you won't be sure until the end of the book. great descriptions. well rounded characters that hold your interest. and complicated plots. I've read all of his books and loved them all.